Although Bushman has long studied the link between violent games and aggressive behavior,
this is his first foray into the effects of relaxing video
games because, he said, this type of game simply didn’t exist
before.

“Only recently have games focused on calming people down,”
Bushman said. “There’s a new market for this which you see across
the board. For example, for years we’ve had plenty of energy
drinks to energize, but now we also have drinks to calm you
down.”

One game that caters to this market of calm is “Endless Oceans”
for the Nintendo Wii, in which players explore a
non-threatening ocean environment of exotic marine animals and
deep-sea treasures. The Ohio researchers found that players of
this type of game became more calm and considerate during the
game.

For two experiments more than 100 college students were randomly
assigned to play a video game that was either relaxing (such as
“Endless Oceans”), neutral (such as “ Wii Sports Resort ”) or violent (such as
“Resident Evil”). Students had previously rated all these
games as being equally enjoyable and exciting to play.

During the first experiment, participants were asked to compete
against another player — who did not actually exist — in pushing
a button as quickly as possible. The winner would be awarded a
small financial sum; the loser would be punished with a brief
noise blast. Before each trial, participants could determine how
much their competitors would receive if they won, and how strong
a noise blast they would receive if they lost.

“Those people who had played violent games punished their
partners the most and rewarded them the least,” Bushman said.
“Those who had played relaxing games gave the lowest levels of
noise and most amount of money.”

For a second experiment, participants rated how strongly they
felt various emotional states (such as pride, love, happiness,
anger) after they had played their respective video games
(relaxing, neutral or violent). Then, their experimenter told
them their study was over, but that he would welcome their help
sharpening pencils.

“Sharpening pencils is a pretty boring task, but people who did
relaxing games were willing to help in their free time,” Bushman
said. Playing relaxing games both increased players’ positive
mood states and their willingness to help others.

“These results are very encouraging,” Bushman said. “For example,
as a parent, if you want children to relax and be more
cooperative with siblings and more helpful, it’s much more useful
to have them play relaxing games than violent ones. Maybe even
they’ll sleep better at night.”

The research will be detailed in an upcoming issue of the journal
Social Psychological and Personality Science.